Silly Sematic Change!

It seems that the word ‘silly’ has had many meanings over time, but it began by meaning happy or blessed. However, over time, this has developed, through pejoration and weakening, towards the meaning we all know today. 

 

Time	Semantic Change	Example	Analysis
1200-1300	The word ‘silly’ originates from the Old English (West Germanic) word ‘seely,’ (sǣl)  which meant happy or lucky. Its first recorded use is thought to have been at around 1200.	‘Oh Jesus, blessed is that abbey and silly is that religion’ [1]	Here, it seems clear that ‘silly’ is being used to refer to something blessed, which links closely to the original semantic of happiness.
1400+	But in the late 13th century, the semantic meaning of the word changed slightly, to mean innocent or helpless.	‘This silly animal, that does not do anything amiss’ [2] ‘In many of the tales the fairies are tiny, silly, helpless creatures.’	Within these quotations, it appears that ‘silly’ is used as a synonym to helpless, or in need of compassion.
	The next recorded semantic variation seems to be that ‘silly’ reflected weakness in relation to physical strength, or meaning ignorant.	‘Here we see that a small sillie Bird knoweth how to match with so a great beast’ [3] ‘The Silly herdman all astonnied stands’ [4]	Within the first quotation, it is evident that ‘sillie’ is being used to describe the weakness of a small bird, in comparison to a ‘great beast.’ Within this example, however, it seems that ‘silly’ is being used to reflect ignorance.
1500 +	And then, in around the sixteenth century, ‘silly’ was utilised to mean childish. From here it then began to describe a foolish action.	‘In pride wee speake it, or at least inwardlie thinke it, wee are not as those seely idiotes are’ [5] ‘He is a silly senseless boy’ [6]	Here we can see that ‘silly’ is being used to mean foolish, which may relate to earlier use of the word to mean childish. In the second quotation, ‘silly,’ is followed by the adjective ‘senseless,’ which we can assume is a synonym. Because of this, we can see that ‘silly’ is being used to mean childish, particularly as it is used to describe a ‘boy.’
Recent uses	In more recent years, it seems to reflect an activity that has caused the person to not think logically or sensibly.	‘But she still worried herself silly every time a visit was coming up.’ Or ‘Scared Silly’ Other idioms in which ‘silly’ appears: ‘Silly Sausage’ ‘Silly as a Goose’  ‘The Silly Season’	Within these quotations, we can see ‘silly’ used with the semantic that we recognise. The colloquial idioms listed have a semantic meaning that contrasts hugely to the meaning of ‘silly’ in the 13th century. From this we can see the process of pejoration and weakening in action. Recently, it seems that ‘silly’ is used in a more child orientated environment.

Quotations sourced from http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/hollmann/WBH_SemChange_finaldraft.pdf (Willem B. Hollmann)

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[1] The Oxford English Dictionary

[2] S.Eng.Leg

[3] J. Maplet, Gr. Forest

[4] Surrey. AEneid ii

[5] Babington, Commandm

[6] Dundonnell Cause, Second Trial: Report of the Trial by Jury, Thomas M'Kenzie Against Robert Roy  Edinburgh (1831)

Child's Reading

Within the extract of Tony Ross’ children’s book, ‘I want a cat,’ the lineation of the text helps to allow children to read fluently and expressively. The page begins with a simple, declarative sentence that is spaced singularly upon the line. This clarity will aid the child in reading the sentence, as its punctuation, with the full stop, is reflected in the lineation of the text. But, perhaps, more interestingly, the next three clauses are spaced in a way that allows fluency to be achieved. The lineation means that ‘so’ is at the end of a line and, as this word can be elongated, the child will have more time to read ahead to the next line, without pausing. Another possible explanation for this spacing, is to ensure the third, and final clause, is clearly linked to the previous two clauses. If the text was spaced so that ‘she jumped up on top of the blackboard,’ stood alone, the child may not understand this action is as a result of the teacher shouting in the described in the previous clause. Furthermore, by beginning the third line with the adverb ‘loudly,’ it may mean that the child will stress this word, perhaps with greater volume, which would be appropriate to the meaning of the lexis.  

The child reading from Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy, is, evidently, a confident reader, but towards the end of the recording, the reading becomes more disjointed. Although the book uses repetition, there may have been other factors, or elements of the book that cause miscues. In the final page of the book, the child pronounces ‘trotted’ with a ‘sh’ sound at the start. This may be because the word ‘shop’ is underneath ‘trotted,’ and the child’s eyes may have looked to the line beneath. This seems to happen again, as the child says ‘they sniffed at each door,’ which has the first half of one, and the second half of the line below. Overall, the child’s errors may have been caused by performance errors, as the child misremembers the words of the book, due to the repetitive nature of the text.

Little Evie Transcipt Analysis Essay

Introduction

From the transcript it does appear that Evie is already a confident and developed language user, perhaps in the telegraphic stage. Evie thrives in a creative, playful and known environment, able to develop skills currently within her zone of proximal development. Evie shows widely developed social skills, particularly friendly conversational skills, encouraged by a seemingly familiar family figure.

(Perhaps also include disucssion around the observers paradox)

Paragraph 1:
Within the first paragraph I would discuss Nelson’s local topics, predominately focused on nouns to show how Evie, through conversation centred around her environment, is encouraged to develop her spoken language.

An example of this is how Evie’s grandmother uses Evie’s toys to act as a conversational topic, perhaps because it is likely that Evie has a good range of lexis relating to these topics.

Paragraph 2:
Discuss how Evie’s grandmother uses many features of child directed speech to support and encourage Evie towards  a child led discourse, linking this to previous exploration into local topics. This would include discussion around Bruner’s theory of interaction, with positive guidance through modelling and reformulation.

‘We’ll take a picture of tigger,’ – within this quote, Evie’s grandmother expands upon Evie’s utterance (‘picture of tigger’), which gives Evie a complete, grammatically standard form to learn from. This is also an example of positive reinforcement and friendly encouragement, as the Grandmother shows that Evie’s language has clear meaning.   

Paragraph 3:
Paragraph 3 would then further develop Bruner’s interactionalist view by drawing upon Vygotski’s theory of the zone of proximal development, and how it can be expanded through scaffolding. This would then include the grandmother’s prompting and cloaked imperative.

‘How many? Count them’ By the use of both an open, although restricted, interrogative and an imperative that appears to be playful in meaning, may show that Evie’s grandmother is able to exercise her power to encourage Evie’s language use.

‘What’s that?’ Evie’s grandmother uses prompts, like this one, to further encourage Evie to use language within this relaxed, familiar environment.

Paragraph 4:
Within this paragraph I would comment upon power asymmetry within the transcript. As the authority to reward praise and reinforce is usually held by the power participant, it is interesting that, at many points in the transcript, Evie appears to be the most powerful. This could be explored further through the differences between instrumental and influential power, is Evie given power to encourage her to develop language confidently?

‘We want cat in the picture,’ – inclusive pronouns may indicate that the grandmother is reducing the power asymmetry by appearing to be on the same level of status as Evie. This may also be a way for Evie’s grandmother to exercise influential power.   

Paragraph 5:

Within the transcript, we see Evie and her grandmother interacting in an imaginative, creative environment. This may be because the grandmother wants to encourage many uses of language, for example the imaginative function that Halliday theorised.

‘he’s nice and dry’ – by being imaginative with the toys, Evie is able to expand upon her lexical use in a fun, creative way. 

Paragraph 6:
When considering Evie’s confident language, it is important to address her use of non-standard pronunciation and grammatical construction. This would include any virtuous errors within the transcript and, perhaps linking this to a stage of development, i.e. the telegraphic stage.

An example of this would be the multiple variations of pronunciation for the word ‘kangaroo,’ – shows that Evie is still unsure of some lexical pronunciations, but is encouraged towards a more standard form.    

Phonological Development Notes

The Two Main Stages:

1. Learning to articulate consonants, vowels, syllables, words

2. Learning to represent words

0- 3 months:

• Birth cry and then the differentiated cry
• Reflexive sounds - produces a glottal catch and vowels
• Coos and gurgles
• Blowing bubbles - learning muscle control

1 - 2 years:

• Sentence like intonation
• Echolalia - repetition
• Can understand some words if in the correct context
• Want to pair vowels with consonants, eg. dada rather dad

3-4 years

• Mastering a lot of sounds but may replace some sounds with ones that are easier to form, eg. ‘f’ not ‘th’

• Intelligible use of language

Phonological Development Terms:

• Cluster Reduction:
  - delete consonant combinations, e.g. ‘play’ spoken as ‘pay’
• Syllable Reduction
  - The deletion of a syllable from a word containing two or more syllables.
  - The deletion usually occurs in the unstressed syllable.
• Consonant Simplifications (Use a simpler consonant for a more difficult one)

- Fronting: consonants are produced at the front of the mouth are easier than sounds produced further back, e.g. ‘d’ & ‘t’ are easier than ‘g’ or ‘k’, e.g. ‘got’ turns to ‘dot’

- Stopping: sounds that stop airflow are easier than ones that restrict it ‘t’, ‘d’ are easier than ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘sh,’ ‘p’ and ‘b’ are easier than ‘f’ and ‘v’,                  (e.g. ‘foot’ as ‘put’)

- Gliding: replace ‘r’ and ‘l’ with ‘w’ (e.g. ‘rock’ spoken as ‘wo(ck)’)

• Consonant assimilation
  - Make one sound the same as, or similar to, another in the word e.g. ‘dark’ pronounced as ‘guck’)
• Diminutives
  - Morphemes attached to simple words, eg. dog becomes dog-y
  - They imply smallness
• Reduplicated Babbling
• Final Consonant Deletion
  - Leaving of the last consonant eg. stoppin’
• Prevocalic voicing
  - The voicing of an initial voiceless consonant in a word.
• Postvocalic devoicing
  - The devoicing of a final voiced consonant in a word.